How strict is the SVCD spec?

[Mark]

According to www.vcdhelp.com the MAXIMUM allowable bitrate for a SVCD is 2500 kbps:
http://www.vcdhelp.com/svcd.htm


Recently I started examining some of my SVCD template captures with Bitrate Viewer. I had assumed the captures I made at 2400 kbps CBR conformed to the SVCD spec. What I discovered is my 2400 kbps CBR captures actually have occasionaly spikes that go as high as 3200 kbps. So much for sticking to the the SVCD standard!

I could drop the bit rate down to something like 1700 kbps to compensate for the spikes, but I would be giving up a lot of picture quality.

Anyone have any thoughts on how to capture at a decent bitrate and still stay in the SVCD spec? Or is the the SVCD standard permit occasionaly spikes above 2500 kbps?

[Dhruv]

Well if you go over the mark, you're making a X-SVCD (extended SVCD). So if your player is playing anything higher properly,it supports XSVCD and you don't have to worry about going too high.

[homerpez]

I found that SVCD can be anything which is the standard resolution (NTSC 480x480), and under or including 2520 bitrate. Probably 99.9999999% of standalone players can handle "spikes" (bitrates jumping to 3000-something for a split second), but few can handle sustained bitrates higher than 2520...

I typically encode with 700 MIN, ??? AVG, and 2520 as my MAX. Even encoding with CCE produces jumps as high as 3500, but it plays back fine.

Otherwise, yeah... I see no reason not to encode to SVCD all the time... you can encode wither CBR or VBR, and it's still standard. You can down the audio bitrate to 128k, and it's still standard. It's almost tough not to make it standard specs!

[RoopeT]

It's almost tough not to make it standard specs!

It's almost impossible to make it standard specs! My Philips DVD 622 has very much playback problems if there's either a bitrate peak over ~2850 kbps or a "bitrate valley" below 1000 kbps. If I'm not using SVCD subtitles, the player will "just" stop thinking for a second or so and then continue playing on these spots. If I have SVCD subtitles in the stream, The player will completely freeze and I have to unplug it.